Believe
by gacktsgal
Summary: Naruto is starting his life anew as a freshman in university. He's thrilled to be getting an apartment that comes with a roommate, ready to be best friends. The roommate isn't so thrilled to have a roommate forced on him, especially one that claims to have a demon fox sealed inside them. What crazy person did Kakashi force on him? AU, Yaoi, SasuNaru, Supernatural/Romance/Angst.
1. Jumping Back In

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.**

**Warnings: Yaoi (that's boy on boy), violence, language, sexual content, alcohol use. I'm going for this fic to be darker than my others.**

**A/N: I don't know why I'm writing this. Camp NaNo is now 4 days away and I've just been writing so much lately. Wanting to write my original but instead just focusing on fanfiction. And I really wanted to do this one. And now, knowing me, I'll be updating my three SasuNaru fics frequently, plus my NaNo once it starts. GAH. xP**

'these are Naruto's thoughts'  
**'These are the demon's thoughts'**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Jumping Back In**

He sat in the large plush couch that was in the middle of the room, facing a desk and the man sitting behind it. Many times before he's been in this room, so by now he was completely at ease, and was lounging against it, one arm slung over the back, legs crossed. The man behind the desk was studying him quietly, a pen in one hand.

"Naruto," he began. They had long ago gotten past the point of referring to each other by their last names. He's been going to this office for years, after all. "Are you sure you're comfortable going to University?"

Naruto grunted, sitting up straighter in the couch, moving his hands so that they were tucked underneath his thighs. "I'm tired of hiding away from the public," he admitted.

"There may be quite a few old classmates going to this University, since you're staying in the area," Yamato warned. "If they remember you and try to taunt you, remember what I said; keep collected, respect your fellow human, even if they're not respecting you."

The younger man snorted. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not quite as brash as I was back then, listening to 'voices in my head,'" he mocked himself. In his head, only something he could hear, came a low, throaty snort.

'**Keep up the nice acting job'**.

'Shut up.'

Yamato gave him a stern look, and Naruto knew he disapproved of him making light of why he was sent to a psychiatrist years ago in the first place, especially now that he's significantly improved. "You're sure about an apartment as opposed to dorming?"

"I'm sure. I'm ready to go back to a public schooling system, but not dorms."

"And you're aware that I'll be getting you an apartment that you'll be sharing with someone else."

"Saves money, fine by me. As long as my roommate isn't a maniac and as long as the apartment is close to the school, for convenience." He was getting bored with this conversation now.

'**One maniac enough in your life**?' the voice laughed.

'Shut up.'

"Alright then," his psychiatrist sighed in defeat, smiling as he leaned back in his chair. "I already have one lead on an apartment. An old acquaintance of mine has a charge that will be starting at Konoha University for his first year as well, who's looking at apartments."

Naruto grinned. He couldn't help himself; he was finally going back to the real world! "The sooner we can get things settled, the better." Yamato couldn't help but smile along with the infectious happiness.

'**Yuck.'**

"You can call Iruka to tell him to pick you up now. I'll call later and let you know about the apartment." Naruto hopped up without a second thought and practically skipped out of the room. He was going to University! Finally, his life can start gaining some sense of normality again!

'**Because everyone has demons sealed within them,' **the voice said sarcastically. Naruto frowned as he got outside.

'No', he thought, 'but with enough concentration said demon could be silenced for a while'. Mocking laughter rang through his head and he texted Iruka to come pick him up.

And that was why the 19-year-old was seeing a psychiatrist in the first place; because he heard a voice in his head, who he claimed was the nine-tailed fox demon of Konoha lore. The voice had always been there, ever since he could remember. He always thought it was just an imaginary friend, but as he grew up and the voice persisted, he was questioning what kind of existence it really was.

The tale of the demon attack on Konoha was a local ghost story. It happened over one hundred years ago. The story said some tailed demons were unleashed on the world, and a fox with nine tails had attacked the city but was sealed away before the city was destroyed.

It was just a myth, an urban legend. So when Naruto was around nine and told the wrong person about the voice in his head and who the voice said it was, word got around, and he was mocked. Taunted. Ostracized. Attacked at least twice a week. So when the voice kept egging him on to defend himself, he did so. Three injured classmates later, he was pulled out of school and was meeting Yamato for.

Ten years later, with a year off before making his decision, he told his psychiatrist about his plan to go to the local University. Yamato had deemed Naruto a vast improvement in mental health with his lack of voice-in-head, and Naruto did his best to keep him thinking that way. Despite the fact that the demon yammered on practically all day, hissing snarky remarks and oozing hostility.

It was remarkable he remained so upbeat.

* * *

Sasuke was annoyed. Here he was, a young 19-year-old man striving to get the hell away from his guardian and into his own place, and the moment he achieves it, said guardian calls the evening he moved in and demands him to go out to eat with him. That's how he found himself sitting at a coffee shop table across from Kakashi, who had arrived late as usual.

"Guess what I found for you," the masked man said mysteriously.

"If it's not a coffee maker, I don't care." Kakashi had dropped and broken his while moving it to his new place.

He acted like the moody raven said nothing at all. "A roommate!" He said this so happily, in a tone that should be reserved for him saying he was leaving the country, instead of announcing he was shoving an annoying busybody in the same living space with him. He suddenly hated that Kakashi was paying for the apartment.

"Get rid of it," he demanded. Kakashi blinked.

"Nah. You'll have a blast. Besides, it's a favor I'm doing for a friend of mine, Yamato."

"The psychiatrist that's a much saner person than you?"

"That's the one. One of his patients has been home schooled most of his life and he's wanting to start up University now. I've been told he's a good kid."

Sasuke blanched mentally. "You're making a headcase move in with me? If he's batshit crazy or something, I'm coming after you."

"He's not, as you put it, 'batshit crazy.' He's improved. Besides, you have Itachi for a brother, you should be used to headcases." He wasn't wrong. "Just give him a chance before you... be yourself," he said in a deadpan way. "He should be showing up in a few days, he already has a key in case you're not there."

"Hn." Kakashi rolled his one visible eye, the other hidden behind his silvery-gray hair that stuck up messily everywhere else.

"Yes, we're done." He shooed Sasuke away, who wasted no time getting away from the man who he was sure just planned various ways to piss him off.

* * *

Naruto was already excited. He was in the elevator of his new apartment building, bouncing on the balls of his feet while he headed up to the fifth floor. The apartment building looked so cool! The apartments looked so open and new! It was only a fifteen minute walk from campus! And the price actually wasn't too bad; he couldn't stop thanking Yamato. Soon enough he would be meeting his roommate, who he was sure would be his first friend and best friend. **'I don't count as a friend?'**

'Do you ever say anything that's not sarcastic?' he snapped mentally.

**'Where's the fun in that?'**

When the elevator finally stopped, he made his way down the hallway, looking for door number 512, key hanging from a finger. He eventually found it, and found a forlorn-looking pink-haired girl slumped outside. He cleared his throat awkwardly and she looked up at him curiously.

"Who are you?" He thought she looked familiar, and with a start, he realized she may be an old classmate of his before he was yanked out of school. There weren't too many people with pink hair.

"Naruto. As of today, I live here." He motioned to the door she was sitting by, and she seemed to brighten a little. "Did you get locked out or something?"

She was grinning now. "Oh, no. My three friends are in there and I went to get something—I live a few apartments down—and they forgot to leave the door open! It's so silly!"

"You couldn't have... knocked on the door?" Naruto was confused now. Maybe his roommate was deaf, and hung around other deaf people? He started to freak out at the thought; he didn't know sign language! Already he was preparing to head to the campus library to find a book to learn sign language from.

'**Jump the gun much?'** She was wearing a sheepish look on her face.

"Like I said, I'm so silly! I didn't even think of it. Well now that you're here, I don't need to!"

**'Let her in, it should be entertaining.' **Naruto wondered what the demon meant by that but shrugged it off, reaching over to unlock the door to his new apartment. He couldn't help feeling it was like opening a present on Christmas. The door opened, and he glimpsed a scene of two men playing a video game on the couch, a third lounging in a chair a few feet away looking bored.

It was him who saw the new arrival first, but his eyes instantly narrowed when the girl charged in yelling "SASUKE!" and draped herself across him. She was roughly shoved off.

The game was paused, and one boy who had long luxurious-looking dark hair was looking over. "How the hell did she get in here?"

The other boy, whose hair was pulled up in a ponytail that stuck up from the back of his head, was looking slightly annoyed. "She's always so troublesome."

Ignoring the pouting girl sitting cross-legged on the floor, he stepped into the room and grinned at the three other boys. "Hi! I'm Naruto, the new inhabitant. Which one of you guys is my roommate?"

The long-haired male swiveled his head around, and Naruto noticed his eyes were a damn creepy shade of pale gray. It was the one in the chair who the girl had launched her attack at who stood up. Naruto could see why, he supposed. A tall lithe-looking pretty boy. **'Why is his hair doing that in the back?'** Naruto saw his point; it resembled a duck's ass. He didn't voice their thoughts.

"That would be me. Unfortunately." Naruto flinched. Great start. "My new unwanted roommate lets loose this _thing_." He gestures at the girl, who stood up and latched onto his arm, eyes widening in a hurt expression.

"I didn't know you didn't want her in here, sorry. She was sitting outside the door looking sad and said she was locked out accidentally."

"Not on accident," the pony-tailed one sighed.

"Oh." Naruto could only mumble an apology again. "Now I know who not to let in." He forced a laugh. "I'm Naruto." He left out his last name just in case the girl did happen to be an old classmate, and one who would just happen to remember the loon he was known to be back then.

"I'm Neji." The long-haired one.

"Shikamaru." Pony-tailed guy. The third was silent, still standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed.

Naruto gulped anxiously; in all honesty the glare was pretty damn icy and scary. He heard the demon scoffing at his reaction. He forced himself to walk up to his new roommate and held out a hand to shake. "I'd like to be friends, so let's get on to the right foot here."

Still nothing but silence and glaring. He was starting to get pretty annoyed. **'Just punch him.'**

'No! That would make things even worse, you stupid thing!' The guy's two friends were twisted around in the couch, looking back and forth from between each other and their friend. The girl was twining her hair around a finger, trying to look interesting, but no one paid her any attention anyway.

His roommate's mouth finally opened, and Naruto went from annoyed to giddy. Finally! "Dobe." And the giddiness was gone. He didn't know what that meant, but he was pretty sure it wasn't his name, and more than sure it was the insult it sounded like. He let his hand drop to the side and fixed his face into a glare as well. If this duck assed bastard didn't want to give things a fair chance, fine. Naruto would play it his way.

And that's how Naruto's university life began.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this first chapter. My original intention was to let the readers keep guessing on whether Naruto was just deranged or not, but sadly, the genre gives the truth away.**


	2. Operation Friendship Commence

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.**

**A/N: I'm glad some of you guys are interested in this fic. Hopefully it'll gain more interest, maybe when I don't update it at 11pm or something around then like last time. I noticed a similar pattern when I updated R&F pretty late.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Operation Friendship Commence**

Naruto was currently fuming on the bed in his new room, listening to the group in the living room. He had yet to unpack the few things he brought, and Iruka was going to help him out with furniture later. 'What an asshole. I mean sure I let in some creepy fangirl on accident but he didn't need to be so insulting. What the hell is a dobay anyway?!'

'**It's a Japanese word, and an insult. Basically means loser, or idiot.'**

'Great, so I also get insulted in a language I don't even know.' A knock sounded at his door and he sat up, hoping maybe his roommate had come to apologize. Instead the girl he had let in entered the room, looking a bit nervous.

"About earlier, outside in the hall, I'm sorry. I can get a bit... carried away when it comes to Sasuke. Maybe. I guess." He assumed Sasuke was the Ice Prince.

"Is he always like that?"

"No, sometimes he's in a bad mood!" Naruto didn't know quite what to say to that, but the look on his face must have said enough, since she laughed suddenly. "I wish I was joking, but yeah... he's a loner most of the time. He mostly only puts up with the two guys out there. There's something alluring about him though, you know?"

No, Naruto didn't know. His first impression of the other male wasn't a good one. "I'll take your word for it," he said with a grin. "I don't think I caught your name."

"Oh!" she said with surprise, realizing he was right. "I'm Sakura, Sakura Haruno. Did we meet somewhere before or something? You look familiar." Naruto was afraid of this. He could only hope she wouldn't judge him for what happened in elementary school.

"I went to elementary school with you, before I started being homeschooled. My last name is Uzumaki." Her face was screwed up in concentration, trying to remember a Naruto from back then. The moment she remembered was obvious, as her face went slack and her eyes opened wide in shock.

"You're the... ah..."

He tried to hide his flinch. "Crazy guy? Yeah, that was a long time ago. So let's just start over, how's about that?" He flashed his dazzling smile. No one could resist that.

She grinned almost immediately, and nodded her agreement. "You're right, it _was_ a long time. Nothing to judge you for a decade later." Ha, he knew no one could resist his smile. Except Sasuke. "I'm going to head back to my apartment before Sasuke chews my head off." Her smile slipped at the end of that, and he felt for her. "We should go out for coffee or something tomorrow, are you free?"

Naruto couldn't believe his luck. He already made a friend, and with someone who remembered what happened back in school, to boot! He had a good feeling about all of this. "I am! Noon good for you?"

"Perfect! Good luck with Sasuke." They grinned knowingly at each other and she left his room, leaving him alone once more. He had this week to get settled and hopefully get on Sasuke's good side before school started.

'**Why do you care so much about befriending the kid?'**

'I'm going to be living with him.'

'**So?'**

Naruto rolled his eyes. 'So it'll be easier to live with someone I'm on good terms with, at the very least. Your violent answers aren't the solutions to everything, so don't tell me to stab him in his sleep.' No matter how tempting.

He couldn't see the demon, but he had the sense he was rolling his eyes now. **'Whatever. If you're so insistent on this, try getting along with the other two first. Get to him through them.'** Well what do you know, the obnoxious demon could be useful sometimes.

Not today, though. It was getting late, he was getting tired, and he didn't want to try to befriend them with Sasuke right there. But that didn't mean he still couldn't try to get on Sasuke's good side anyway. With a loose plan in mind, he dragged himself out of bed to change out of his clothes, ready to sleep in his new apartment for the first time.

* * *

Naruto was woken up by a door slamming and a loud voice. He slowly rolled over to look at the clock on the nightstand, and groaned when he saw that it was seven in the morning. What the hell was his roommate doing? He got up and stumbled over to the door, opening it a bit so he could peek out.

Sasuke was leaning against the front door, coffee in one hand, cellphone in the other and up to his ear. "Don't give me that crap, Kakashi," he heard him saying. Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed. "I was just out getting a morning coffee... why? Because _you broke my coffee maker_... I don't care if I wake him up."

Naruto rolled his eyes. The guy was so considerate. **'You should pour the coffee all over him.'**

'It's actually pretty tempting right now.' Maybe the stick would be dislodged from the raven's ass if Naruto bought a coffee maker for them both? It'd be useful to him, too, so it's not like he'd be buying it just for Sasuke.

He had gotten off the phone while Naruto was thinking things over and resisting the urge to hurt him, and had opened up a laptop on the couch. Whatever it was, he looked like he was in deep thought. Now was the perfect time to turn music on, then.

Closing the door quietly, he crept over to his backpack and dug out the laptop and got dressed while it booted up. After that, he opened up his music folder and clicked on trusty ol' Carly Rae Jepsen, then put the volume all the way up. For a laptop, it was pretty loud.

He was singing along at the top of his lungs and dancing on his bed, ignoring the annoyance radiating from the other being in his body. **'Is this how you become his friend?'** he sniped, and Naruto grinned.

'No, but this is what he gets for waking me up.' He was paying zero attention to anything other than his singing and dancing, and he found the music cut off while he was shoved roughly off the bed. He landed roughly on his rump and hissed, looking up at his roommate, who stood over him looking blank.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, dobe?"

"Having a good time. What, you can have your good time slamming doors and chatting on your phone but I can't have mine?"

"Precisely." Geez, there wasn't even a flicker of guilt in the Ice Prince's eyes.

"You're really something, you know that? You're such a...," he floundered about for a second trying to think of a unique insult like he had gotten.

'**Call him 'usuratonkachi.''**

"You're such a urasatonkati!" His insult was met with a bemused look.

"What?"

'**God, you're hopeless. Just call him a 'teme.' Can you manage those two syllables, you idiot?'**

"Teme!" Now the raven had one eyebrow lifted.

"And where did you learn that?" Well crap, he couldn't very well say the demon in his body was giving him a crash course in Japanese insults, could he?

"Places. Internet. You know."

Sasuke stared at him for a while more. Finally, he managed out a 'hn' and walked out of the blond's room. Naruto sighed and leaned against the wall, wondering what exactly his roommate had against him.

'**The fact that he has a roommate at all. I highly doubt it was his idea to have you move in.'**

"I guess," Naruto mumbled as he got up. He may as well go out and look at coffee makers before getting coffee with his newfound friend. He browsed on various stores' websites looking at different ones waiting for the stores to actually open, and he grabbed his keys and headed out without a word to his roommate, and vice versa.

* * *

Sasuke stretched his arms up in the air, hearing satisfying pops and groaning appreciably. He had been on the laptop for a while now just killing time. One would think he was doing something important, when in reality he was playing Angry Birds. So when 'Call Me Maybe' started blasting from his new roommate's room, he was more curious than annoyed.

He was still annoyed; his roommate was being rude, and like hell would he put up with a rude roommate. He'd ignore both facts that he was initially the rude one and that he liked the song that his roommate was dancing on his bed to. After that he moved himself to his own room and only vaguely noticed when he heard the blond leave the apartment.

He was a bit surprised when he looked at the clock and saw that it was almost two o'clock in the afternoon. Naruto had been gone for a while, then, and Sasuke should probably get something to eat. He hopped out of bed and went towards the kitchen when he stopped at the new addition that was now sitting on the counter.

A coffee maker. A rather nice one, at that. He wasn't sure when it arrived, since he hadn't heard the door open after Naruto's initial departure, but he found himself smirking and pulling out his cellphone to call Kakashi.

"Hm?" was the answer as his guardian picked up.

"I never expected you to actually go out and get me a coffee maker, especially one this nice, but I can't say I don't appreciate it."

"What?"

Sasuke sighed. "A coffee maker. Machine. Sits in the kitchen. Makes coffee. You dropped my last one and I hinted at you to buy me a new one?"

"Why would I buy you a coffee maker?" He sounded honestly confused. The raven frowned; if he didn't buy it, then who did? Oh god, did Sakura manage to get a spare key to his apartment again?

Before he could say anything else, the door opened and his roommate walked in, saying goodbye to someone over his shoulder. Sakura's voice answered as he heard her apartment door opened. Sasuke ended the call without another word and Naruto spotted him and stopped. "Hi?"

"You were with Sakura? Did she get the coffee maker?" The blond just looked confused now, and he finally remembered to shut the door.

"Why would Sakura buy you—never mind, she's probably done weirder stuff for you, huh? I bought it." Now Sasuke was confused. Why would his roommate who he tried his best to make feel unwelcome buy it? Maybe it was just coincidence. "I overheard you wanting one on the phone this morning. I have use for one, too, so I thought 'hey, why not!' As a peace offering." Or not a coincidence.

"My idea of peace is pretending the other doesn't exist. I'll allow you to use my coffee maker, however. Dobe." With that he turned to go back into his room, but not before he caught the gaping look on Naruto's face. He smirked to himself and left him standing there.

* * *

His coffee maker? _His_ coffee maker? Who did he think he was? And what was his problem, exactly? Sure he didn't ask for a roommate, but he could still make the best of it and get along with him.

A thought came to him. Maybe he somehow knew about why he was seeing Yamato, and thought he was a freak. It wouldn't be the first time someone stayed away from him for that reason. **'Perhaps the pink-haired girl told him.'** But Naruto didn't want to believe that. He got his first friend, and he didn't want to start off the friendship with distrust. Besides, she warned him how Sasuke was, didn't she?

So it was back to getting to know Neji and Shikamaru, then. Maybe Sakura could help him out with that. **'Don't go overboard, idiot. Why care so much? It'd be best to settle with his idea of peace, it's better than hostility. Since you don't listen to me on that front, anyway,'** he grumbled. **'You'll meet other people. Ones that aren't him, and are better than him.'**

'First the idea of Neji and Shikamaru, now this. Since when did you start making sense?' Perhaps he was right. He had a great place to stay, and his roommate was willing to just go about like they didn't exist to each other. It was preferable to more awkward living situations.

'**Since you started listening.'** He felt a smirk come from the demon, and Naruto felt uneasy. Most of the time it wanted nothing more than to get Naruto's anger up, to have him hurt people or things. So listening to it would bring nothing but trouble.

* * *

**A/N: Gah, I'll tell you what. When your tailbone hurts, it's a pain to sit in a chair and write. :P Especially since I don't own a laptop or a tablet or anything other than my desktop. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to leave a review with your thoughts! For my tailbone! Haha.**


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